TATE BRITAIN, Ophelia Millais

Now I'd like to tell you about Ophelia by John Everett Millais, which is one of the most important works you can admire in the Pre-Raphaelite section. It depicts one of Shakespeare's characters: the unhappy girl who kills herself for her love of Hamlet. As you can see, Millais transforms the drama of the suicide into a dream-like vision where Ophelia gently slips into the waters of a pond, immersed in the nature that frames her languid end.

In the tragedy Hamlet, the melancholy and tender character Ophelia does not hold a prominent position, yet her character is one of the most beloved by artists, especially for her silent and painful death. Millais depicts the young drowned woman as if she was a mysterious and sensual aquatic plant floating between reeds and water lilies on the clear surface of a pond. In Shakespeare's tale, Ophelia goes down into the water "like a mermaid" and is dragged underwater by her drenched and heavy clothes; she still holds the flowers she wraps garlands with in her hands, and you can almost hear her singing a last bitter love song from her partially open mouth....